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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 11, 1894)
-:-. -r vtK -a jT"sr- --n "j 1 "ciJ,?r - r?T ;-t?; ---' tW!0!1 i?,f?W?!S 1 :T - - f J- --- - - 4w THE COURIER ,r ST i ? I" Just dow the newspapers are giving a great deal of space to the discussion of irrigation. Irrigation for the western part of this state is absolutely essential if there is to be a permanence of pros perity; and it is important that there should be a prompt move ment in this direction. But in the discussion of this question there is invariably exaggeration in the estimate of the results to be achieved. Notwithstanding the showing made in the article by Professor Harrington Emerson in the current number of the Irri gation Age, and which has been reprinted in nearly all of the lead ing daily newspapers in this state, it is a pretty generally accepted fact among the well informed that there is a large portion of the state that cannot be placed under irrigation, Professor Emer son is entirely too optimistic. A considerable portion of northwestern Nebraska is admirably adapted for the grazing' of stock, and to tell the truth, this is the only purpose it can be profitably put to. In many dis tricts irrigation is impossible. A very great mistake was made when the stock was driven off this range country and the land divided up into farms. There must inevitably be a return to the original conditions, and it will be a good thing when this is shoe. Grazing is profitable, and a large cattle growing industry would be valuable to the state. A feature of this return to first principles must be a shrinkage of land values. It would of course be impossible to raise cattle on a large scale on land that has a farm value; and this land must go back to value commen surate with the use to which it is put Somebody has got to lose. In many cases both the eastern man who holds the mort gage and the man who holds the title will be affected. This is as unfortunate condition of things; but it must be met. A gentleman signing himself "A" writes to The Courier as follows: "In the last issue of The Courier the critic on Marcella bewails the fact that so much sociological, religious, etc., dis cussions are contained in the novel of today outside of the love story, which S thinks should be the chief end of the writer of fiction. I may be mistaken, but 1 cannot help thinking that SV view thereof is not quite up to the times. It seems to me that we have outgrown the time when men and women gave their spare time to the reading of mere love stories. The view of the intelligent reader of today is that the less of love a novel contains the better it is. I question the statement of 'S' that it takes more skill to write a simple love story than the novel of today, and should like to know who the masters were that wrote such admirable simple stories a generation or two since. I do not know any who wrote only love stories who are read or thought of by the reading pub lic of today. 'The novel is taking the place of the pulpit,' says a distinguished preacher, and somewhat of a statesman too, I think. I have a great respect for the love of John and Mary, but the love season is but a small part of the life of most people; the other, and tar greater part, is quite other than sentimental. The love story is like the golden thread running through the web; it makes it i beautiful and desirable, but the main part is. after all. for .If the athers of today, by the application of geaiaa, .mm rjjghtoa- the ever changing and complex jmUmmmtWe. -arid mb Hrtsresing and instructive "by combination with the Java evary, they are doing good service. Such service I think Mrs. JfrmparayWanl has nobly done in Marcella. Mrs. Ward cannot be a socialist. S' admits that Marcella had changed her mind on that subject after her experience in the service of the working class in London. It was shows by her speech at Haifa's home, to the workiagmen's leaders, toUalhVs surprise; and also by her accep tance of Aldous Raebura. No; Marcella is a soundly conservative book. There is bo comfort for the radical socialist there; at least so I read." before sociophobia had become epidemic. We shoald prefer to take our novels and love stories -without the admixtare of this leaven. When we are once interested in the love affairs of Mary and John what care we for such things as the regeneration of mankind? The regeaeration of mankind is all right in its place but it has no business interfering with the course of the love of Mary and John." "8" did not speak for the love story alone but for the old-fashioned novel that depended upon its story to arouse the interest of the reader, the novel that did .not preach. But after all. love in some form must forever ba the theme of the novel, and the men and women of the present day, progressive though they may be, have not outgrown appreciation for that kind of action that has, for instance, a noble representative in the last twe books of DuMaurieror in the novels of Blackmore. Will "A" not admit that infinitely more art is displayed in "Triby" or 'Lorna Doone,'' which are the simplest kind of stories, love stories, if you will, than in "Robert Elsmere" or "Marcella," so called novels that aroused public interest, not by the stories they told, but by the questions they raised? Andrew Lang has discussed this matter in a particularly interesting fashion, and "A" might find pleasure in reading what this author has to say on the modern preaching novel. In speaking of the masters who wrote such admirable simple stories a generation or two ago "S" did not say they were all "love stories.' "A" allows his evident antipathy for the love story to interfere witn his discrimination. Thackeray might be mentioned as one of the masters who wrote novels full of personal interest, but ignoring altogether all seriouB discussions of religion and political economy or sociology. Most of Dickins' stories stand on the great skill of the author in the telling rather than on any lessons contained in them. Dumas managed to awake the keenest interest by his novels which deal almost entirely of love and war. We remember' and love D'Artagan not because of any socialistic cabal with which he surrounded himself but, because of his strong character and great achievements. And Walter Scott wasted very little time in lecturing on economic "problems as he conducted his characters through the pages. Rich ard the Lion Hearted and Rob Roy and Scott's countless heroes and heroines may have had strong convictions on the questions of a land tax, or the equal distribution of property, or the eight hour law, but they kept them to themselves, to the relief of the reader. And com ing down to a later period Du Maurier and Blackmore and William Black and Howelk and Henry James contrive tn be tolerably inter esting to their readers without the introduction of mnch sociology. William Black can make his hero catch a hundred salmon without so much as a word about game laws or class privileges. The modern aovelaaay be attempting to take the place of the pul pit; but with as little proprieiy as there would be in the pulpit resortiag to the jnataeds of the novelist in order to command atten- 3ae aovaliat aad the preacher each has has -separate aad in- Jtiaaao privilege of one to amuse fey .the relatioa of aatituuslncidenta, and of the other to hold out salvatiou to man kind. The lecturer and the politician also have fields of their own. If the author of today can throw any valuable light on the com plex problems of life he would do well to throw it out direct, and not mix it with fiction. It may get lost in the pages of a novel. The concluding sentences of "AV communication cannot be gain said. "Marcella" is, indeed, conservative in its .teachings, and it is to be commended for the position it takes. The only question is whether we want "lessons" in our fiction. "A" is mistakes when he says that the reviewer of "Marcella' thicks the love story should be the chief end of the writer of action. The writer of the review in question deprecated the in trodactioa of so much sociological discussion in the modern, novel, mying in part; "Imagine a lover telliag his passion in. one breath aad explaining his conviction on the silver question in the next! The thing is iacosgrnous, and somehow this intermingling of so cialism with fiction is not to the taste of these of us 'who admire the simple stories produced by the masters a generation or two ago Miss E. E. Holden, Stenographer, Typist and Notary Public, makes a specialty of depositions and legal work. 137 North Thirteenth street; Lansing Theatre Building. E. Staler. Wholesale Ice Cream and fruit ices. New location, at 133 south 12 St. Phone 630. "v H s- -, j" fc-P " -i is ftnijffflfMaagJa&s&iMrifew -,r&4& .& rij